IKEA pegboard and cart make home networking a thing of beauty

No matter where I used to put my networking equipment, they either occupied a lot of space or became hard to access, not to mention that the cables tended to get tangled and accumulate dust and spiderwebs. Relocating my networking equipment, as I’ve done a few times before, was also an unpleasant experience, having to gather all the devices, power adapters, and networking cables and sort through what was what.

Having seen structured media enclosures in new homes, I was inspired to achieve something functionally similar for a DIY project.

As I was perusing IKEA, I came across the VESKEN cart and the SKÅDIS pegboard separately and my mind immediately jumped to combining the two, because they looked similar in size.

However, the width of the pegboard is actually 0.75″ wider than the width of the cart, and I left, dismayed. When my router’s power adapter overheated and failed in Vancouver’s 2021 summer heatwave though, I decided to revisit the project.

Initial experiments

I initially tried to mount the SKÅDIS pegboard into a cheap LAIVA bookshelf, but it was not very aesthetically pleasing to look at, and it defeated my objective of saving space: I now had a random bookshelf occupying even more room.

When I next passed by the VESKEN cart again, I deliberated whether or not the difference in widths was that big of a deal: a difference of 0.75″ meant half of that, or 3/8″ sticking out from either side. I decided to give it a shot.

The VESKEN cart didn’t look like it could hold up to drilling into either the plastic shelves or the posts, but the SKÅDIS was riddled with holes, so I decided to fasten the pegboard to the cart using zip-ties. From there, I mounted my networking equipment onto the pegboard and stood it up … only to discover the weight of the equipment and power adapters near the back of the entire assembly made it prone to falling backwards.

Back to IKEA I went and purchased another VESKEN cart, using only one set of legs and a shelf to raise the cart by another tier, and I placed a UPS battery backup at the bottom, ensuring the cart would never tip over.

Since assembling my home networking cart, I’ve received multiple requests to build them for others, so I thought I would inspire others to build one for themselves.

IKEA items used:

Other materials and tools:

Zip-ties

DIY Home Networking Cart

Assemble the VESKEN cart per the included instructions.

If you wish to add additional tiers, purchase an additional VESKEN cart, keeping in mind to use only one set of post covers and casters.

2. Align the SKÅDIS pegboard behind the VESKEN cart, and secure it against the posts using 4 zip-ties; two above, and two below the center shelf.

Related:

3. Attach your networking equipment to the SKÅDIS pegboard using the SKÅDIS elastic cords.

Cords and power adapters can be hidden behind the pegboard; however, this may make the entire cart back-heavy and prone to tipping over. Hence, another shelf was added at the bottom to accommodate a (heavy) UPS battery backup, which helped keep the cart standing upright.